Freedom in peril

India’s Constitution promises every citizen the right to choose, profess, practice, and propagate faith. Yet that promise is being systematically dismantled by a patchwork of anti-conversion laws that have turned freedom of conscience into a crime scene. These statutes, framed as safeguards, are in fact shackles-designed not to protect liberty, but to control it. The danger begins with words having vague, elastic terms like “coercion” and “allurement” that are deliberately drafted to be abused in the anti-conversion laws(specifically criminalizing conversion of a Hindu to Christianity). These terms can stretch to cover almost anything- education, charity, medical aid, even sharing a meal. The result is that compassion is criminalized, kindness is suspect, and love itself becomes a punishable offence. The Supreme Court has rightly pressed states to define these terms. However, it should be clear – no definition can justify laws that put conscience on trial. This was amply testified in Uttar Pradesh, where a Christian man who married a Hindu woman was dragged into court under anti-conversion charges of “allurement.” His wife said she married for love, not religion. Yet both were treated as criminals. Across the country, prayer meetings are broken up, pastors beaten and detained, and ordinary believers terrorized and interrogated. The anti-Christian policy had its origin in 1968 in Madhya Pradesh where it was supposed check on coercion but has metastasized into a nationwide regime for harassment. A dozen states-Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Haryana, Rajasthan-have already enacted such laws. Maharashtra threatens to follow. They call them “Freedom of Religion Acts,” but in truth they are instruments of fear. Meanwhile, the same politicians who rail against conversion celebrate “reconversion” or Ghar Wapsi campaigns that are drenched in threats, inducements, and outright coercion. The hypocrisy could not be starker. The constitutional violations are blatant. Article 25 guarantees freedom of conscience and religion. Article 21 protects liberty and privacy. Article 14 assures equality before the law. The anti-conversion laws collide with all three. They force citizens to prove the sincerity of their beliefs, demand prior notice for personal decisions, allow third-party interference, and impose harsh penalties for marriages that dare cross religious lines. This is not law-it is intimidation dressed up as legality. This moment demands courage, not silence. Northeastern states with Christian majorities-Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya-must lead the fight, not whisper from the sidelines. The Church must stop speaking timidly and start speaking boldly. Civil society, across faiths, must rise together and say: conversion is not bribery, not coercion, not transaction. It is transformation-an outcome of conscience, reflection, and grace. The time for legal niceties alone is over. This is a battle for India’s democratic soul. If people who value freedom and democracy remain quiet, tomorrow religions of minorities in India will be at the mercy of police and vigilantes. The answer cannot be passivity but resistance- through courtrooms, pulpits, classrooms, and public squares. Right thinking and freedom loving Indian citizens must choose-whether to allow faith to be policed and conscience chained? Or will they stand up and reclaim the constitutional truth that belief is free, inviolable, and beyond the reach of the state? The choice lies before the people and that silence is surrender and resistance is duty.